The private ownership of pay telephone technology has been an added source of revenue for a variety of businesses for some time. The actual cash collection from the coins deposited by users of pay telephone stations is an important aspect of such revenues. More recently, due to technological advances and changes in the business climate, businesses have been able to add income from long distance telephone calls. With the use of an Automated Operator Service (AOS), a private owner of a telephone can bill users of the telephone for both inter-LATA and intra-LATA long distance calls.
While AOS systems can generate revenue where none existed before, they are very inefficient. An AOS usually operates from a central office. Hence, in the case of an intra-LATA call, the call may have to travel hundreds of miles and finally terminate a few miles from its origination point. The unnecessary miles traveled through the network are expensive and this cost is usually borne by the user, through higher long distance rates, or by the owner of the telephone through lower commissions.
In addition, private owners of pay telephones have heretofore lost a considerable amount of revenue because of the inability to charge for calls placed using telephone billing account numbers such as telephone credit cards. Although such phone calls have been made on the privately owned and maintained pay telephone, the primary telephone companies have reaped the benefit of placing the calls using billing account numbers.
Therefore, a need has arisen for a telecommunications system which can automate and simplify the processes currently handled by a traditional AOS. Specifically, a need has arisen for a pay telephone station which can automatically route long distance calls without the intervention of an outside service, and which allows the pay telephone owner to charge revenues for the completion of a credit card call and calls using other forms of billing account numbers.
In order for a local pay telephone owner to bill for these calls, the local pay telephone station must have the ability to determine the validity of a billing account number entered by a user. This verification process necessarily slows the time required to process a call. A pay telephone station which could store a billing account number which has already been verified could substantially reduce the time required to process later calls placed by the same party. Therefore, a further need has arisen for a pay telephone station which is capable of storing billing account numbers which have been verified and is capable of accessing the stored information in order to reduce call processing time.